Teen Wolf Episode Review: The Sword and The Spirit

After the hype from last week’s episode (which includes the Stydia sneak peak), I think THE WHOLE of the Teen Wolf fandom were on the edge of their seats just waiting to see what we had in store. So, the episode starts out with the Argents wondering in the tunnels as they search around for any clues they can find. They split up and Argent hears sounds emitting from the vents. He lights a torch (y’know, the red ones that Scott used to try and kill himself with) and drops it down into the slots. Even at this point of the episode – merely 5 minutes in, it was already pretty gruesome; a swarm of cockroaches were feasting on the decaying bodies that laid piled onto of each other, slowly rotting away. Ugh.

Next thing we know, all 23 of the deceased victims are being wheeled down the corridors of the hospital as Parrish stands by and watches. He looks… guilty. Stilinski makes his way over having to use his walker to help him get around. Poor Sheriff.

Source: MTV Teen Wolf Twitter

He tries to assure Parrish not to worry at this point in time, at least not until they’ve read every missing persons report from the last two weeks, but deep down, it’s clear that they’re both thinking the worst.

Scott, Stiles and Kira arrive at the hospital, Sheriff quickly informing them that Argent was the one who had found the bodies. As he questions them all, asking if they have any idea what this creature is, they reply with: “we have a theory. It’s a slightly terrifying theory.”

Way to assure your crippled father, Stiles!

GIF Source: MTV // Teen Wolf

They explain their ideas to him and come up with the conclusion that they need to prioritize Parrish and finding out what he is because ‘it looks like his dream is coming true’. And trust me when I say this: you do NOT want Parrish’s dreams to come true. Ever.

Back at Eichen, Meredith is struggling to each Lydia how to use her voice. Perhaps it would be easier for her is she wasn’t stuck inside her own head, her excuse being ’none of this is even real’. Frustrated with Lydia’s inability to see the importance of her voice, she locks her inside of a cell, explaining that the only way she is going to get out is if she manages to break the glass (that of course being done by using her voice).

Meanwhile, Malia is with Theo who stands in front of her holding a large intoxicated needle. His reason being that he can take her to the Dread Doctor’s operating theatre, but he can’t let her see where it is. Intriguing… It is clear that Malia’s trust in Theo wavers, but nonetheless, she agrees to his plan, howling in pain as she is injected with a course of wolfsbane that quickly knocks her out.

GIF Source: TGON

A curfew is set on the town once again, and multiple police officers file the school hallways with loaded guns in hands. Stiles obviously doesn’t agree, making his way over to one of the deputies to state his unease. Despite being told that it was his father’s decision, Stiles is determined to get some more answers out of the man.

“Everyone’s got a theory.”

“What’s yours?”

Their is a pause and a few moments hesitation as the officers looks over his shoulder. He ushers the boys to lean in close, clearly not comfortable with passerbyers hearing what he has to say. And then he asks the question…

“Do you guys believe in the supernatural?”

GIF Source: TGON

Kira grows anxious as her dad takes away her sword. She tries to tell him that she isn’t able to fight without it, but of course he has some wisdomly advice he thinks will change her mind. “You’re still stronger than the fox, Kira.” Then again…it might.

GIF Source: TGON

But it seems that the fox inside her is just too dangerous, so her father has no other choice but to break her sword – right before her own eyes, at that. But as he reminds her, your mind is a weapon.

Malia wakes up sometime later, strapped down to an operating chair for “safety reasons”. According to Theo, they’re there to keep her from hurting herself.

In his hands, Theo holds some kind of warped torture device that somewhat resembles glasses, only with several spikes ready to stab through the skin under her eyes. I know she’s a werecoyote and all, but how on earth could she live through that!?

Blood drips down her face and Theo encourages her to open her eyes. Then again, it is Theo, so more of a brutal demand if anything. Malia screams in agony, finally stopping when she listens to him. She sees Deaton and he’s being tied up against his will. She knows where he is. She later finds Liam to inform him that she knows where Deaton is, only she doesn’t want to tell Scott that herself.

She meets up with Theo and Braeden at the animal clinic, discussing their plan to find the desert wolf. Theo offers his help as Braeden explains to the two that the desert wolf lost part of her power somehow. She’s not as strong, but she’s still dangerous.

Liam finds himself lost in the tunnels after following Malia’s instructions. He has to reject Hayden on their plans, walking around in a circle and passing Scott five times before he notices him. Liam asks Scott how he knew that he was down here, receiving the answer ‘I followed you’. I especially love the hashtag that pops up on the screen at this point. #StalkerDad.

As the other three arrive at the location of Malia’s mother, Braeden expresses her fears about the plan. Though Malia never backs down and she bravely steps forward ready to risk her life, oblivious to the enemy standing right beside her.

Lydia remains locked inside the cell, worn out and unable to use her voice to its full potential. She begs in desperation for Meredith to teach Lydia how she learned to use her own voice, but she refuses on the account that it got innocent people hurt.

This only triggers Lydia’s annoyance even more, but before she can even react on it she hears a noise ringing in her head. Turning around, the wall behind her isn’t visible anymore. Instead, she can see the reflection of a cave, and even more daunting, she can see Malia cowered in the corner, fear shining bright in her eyes. Someone walks over to her, she can’t see who, but judging by Malia’s whimpers, Lydia senses that it’s the desert wolf. ’She’s going to die.”

GIF Source: TGON

Now, to where Lydia rests physically, she lies on her bed with her eyes wide open, still unresponsive. But someone’s there with her. Someone hopes they can change that.

GIF Source: TGON

And thank gosh it’s Stiles. Cue hundreds of weeping fangirls.

This particular scene has to be one of my favorite Stydia moments, ever. I think we all know by now that Stiles and Lydia share an unspoken connection. An emotional tether. Yeah… This scene was just the icing on the cake.

Stiles is seen resting his hand on top of Lydia’s, lingering his fingertips on her skin before he takes hold of her hand altogether. He is silent for a moment, staring down at his best friend, the love of his life, unsure if she can even feel him there.

You can tell that his character is really trying to speak to her normally, hold a conversation just to forget about how damaged she currently is. Stiles talks about school, or at least tries to.

“…and a lot of other stuff that goes totally over my head. Maybe you can wake up and explain it to me.”

He allows a few seconds to pass by, the time spent waiting for her to reply, even though he understands that she’s not going to. For all Stiles knows, Lydia might not even be able to hear him. He pulls his eyes away from her and stares down at their hands entwined. He looks absolutely heartbroken.

GIF Source: TGON

Still, Stiles continues to stroke her hand, rubbing in small circles with his thumb. He drops his head and sighs heavy heartedly, all the pain he’s feeling for her clear on his face.

“Come on Lydia, you have to come back to us. There’s no way we’re getting through this without you.” His voice is barely a whisper, but it’s loud enough. Though, what he really means to say is: ‘you have to come back to me. There’s no way I’m getting through this without you.’

He continues, leans towards her a little and just lets all the emptiness drain from his heart. “Lydia, you have to come back to us.”

BUT THEN GUESS WHO SHOWS UP AND RUINS THEIR PERFECT LITTLE MOMENT? That’s right, Natalie Martin. Basically the whole fandom flipped out and grew insanely angry with her for “trying to stop her son-in-law from seeing his wife”. And I completely agree.

“I think that’s enough. Stiles?” He turns around and faces her, slowly lifting his hand from Lydia. He hesitates, but he’s in no mood for arguing with her. That is until he stands to leave, noticing a white patch behind Lydia’s left ear.

He gently pushes her hair back revealing a freshly shaven patch on her scalp. Lydia’s mother ushers over, anxious to avoid Stiles’ question. He panics, refusing the idea of letting anyone drill a hole into her head for whatever reason. He couldn’t let something like that happen to her. Ms Martin explains that it’s for ECT, but Stiles is uncertain if he should believe her. A worker at the institution wonders into the room to see what all the commotion is about and Stiles leaves, not before taking one final look at Lydia, catatonic and all.

Two guards are headed his was as Stiles walks though the corridors to exit the building. On his way past, he manages to bump into one of the guards, quickly apologizing. As he turned back around, every viewer had – without a doubt – once again fallen in love with the genius that is Stiles.

We shouldn’t even be surprised at this point as he never fails to amaze us with his logic, but wow does that kid impress us. Stiles quickly slips the guard’s key card into his pocket and subtly exits the building, managing to get away with the card for his plans to save Lydia.

And there are still some people who don’t ship Stydia!!?? Seriously, after all they’ve been through, all they do for each other, how could someone not call that love? I don’t know.

Changeover to Liam and Scott who are back in the tunnels, they pause in their movement, sensing a vibration in the room. The two finally get around to talking a bit more, and Liam expresses how he feels, saying that he hopes he can one day save Scott to make up for what he did to him. He points out the snake wheel he finds planted on the wall, wondering if it could help them in anyway.

Scott begins to turn it, revealing a room and coming face to face with Argent and Gerard. They step aside and uncover a painting etched onto the wall showing both the beast and a hellhound. agent kicks at the wall and more section of the painting are shown. A heap of bodies, bones and skulls, cover in blood. When Liam asks who it is, the only words Scott manages to mutter out are “it’s all of us.”

Over to Theo, him, Braeden and Malia arrive at the abandoned factory where Deaton and Malia’s mother are. Malia hesitated upon arrival, picking up a chemo signal, but it’s not clear enough for her to understand. They move further in, stumbling across Deaton who is tied up in a chair. Before they can react, Theo lunges on Braeden, kicking her to the ground and knowing her unconscious. Without any time to fight back, Theo aims the gun at Malia and shoots her in the torso sending her collapsing to the ground.

Theo slides the gun over and out steps the desert wolf. She chucks him a jar with a glowing blue substance inside. He wonders off, leaving Malia and her mother alone.

Parrish is talking with Argent and Gerard as they try to help him figure out what exactly he is. They ask him questions and his mind flashes back to Afghanistan where he worked on defusing bombs – in one case, setting one off on himself. Next, he trails back to when a former co-worker set him and his car alight in a failing plan to kill him. It’s evident that Parrish has some sort of immunity to fire, so they have no choice but to refrain him as they hold a lighter up to his eyes, realign crimson red, glowing eyes. Parrish is a hellhound.

Lydia is in the shower, her caretaker in the background informing her that she doesn’t believe her catatonic act. She snaps out of her daze, realization hitting her. Malia is going to die…

Her mother lifts her foot and lowers it onto her body, slowly crushing Malia, suffocating her, Deaton manages to remove the cloth covering her mouth just in time to stop her from killing Malia. He explains that the only way for her to get her power back is by killing Malia on a full moon. He succeeds and Malia’s life is spared. For now…

Meanwhile, Meredith is screaming at Lydia, pleading for her to use her voice, break the glass so she can snap out of her catatonic state. Another one of her caretakers is raising a needle to her, tilting her head about to inject some unknown substance to her. The particular scene is the same from the opening of season 5A.

She stands up, heart racing and her breaths coming out fast and heavily. She lifts her hands and presses them against the glass, opens her mouth, and screams. Her body shoots upwards – her physical one and not just in her mind. The guard falls backwards, failing to commit any harm to her.

The lights at the warehouse break with a jolt of power, giving Malia to take advantage of her mother’s shock. She pushes her back and pulls herself to her feet, ready to fight.

Lydia rushes out of her cell, guards standing at either side of the hallways ready to sedate her. Using her training skills that Parrish taught her, she manages to injure both guards and knock them out, giving her a chance of escape.

Lydia makes it outside to the front of the building, only to then be captured by guards and tasered until her strength has deteriorated. “Please, I have to tell them!” She cries out. “They’re all going to die. My friends – they’re all going to die.”

The wall behind Deaton begins to crumble and after a matter of seconds, a hole has been punched through and the beast’s glowing eyes shine into the darkness. Malia runs over and manages to pull Deaton to safety, lifting Braeden up as they make their escape.

Theo enters the dread doctors lair, his pack all clutching their wounds beside Deucalion who sits awaiting Theo’s arrival. He informs them that his blindness has returned, and in order to help Theo, he asks for something in return. “I wan’t the eyes of Scott McCall.”

Don’t ask for much, do you buddy?

In the wise words of Stiles Stilinski:

Scott and Liam arrive at the animal clinic to find both Malia and Braeden healing. And finally, Scott is re-united with Deaton once again. He pulls Scott into a hug, and for the first time in a long while, Scott feels a sense of hope. Not an awful lot, but enough.

Enough for them to save their friend.

The episode concludes with Scott’s pack (consisting of Stiles, Kira, Malia and Liam) with a floorpan, the key card Stile’s stole and any other object they have that could help them. A look of pure relief and happiness makes it’s way onto Stile’s face. The moment we have all been waiting for has come.

“Now we get Lydia.”

Article Submitted By Nicole Calland (@HakunaHemmings).

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